John Wilson

So you get Claudia Cardinal and she has a funny accent.

You get Jane Birkin, who was massively successful in France as an actress.

Huge star with her very, very, very strong accent anglais.

And Charlotte Rampling.

I mean, there are lots of us who will have slightly foreign accents, but they don't mind.

And in terms of inhabiting a character, understanding the character, it all starts with the script.

But in the language itself, do you feel as at ease with the French when you're acting as you are now?

I think after a while, I've just done a film in France, actually, funnily enough, in October last year.

And it took me a while to kind of trust myself again with the words.

I do get a little bit confused and I do speak terrible Franglais and I will...

start a sentence in English and end it in French and I'm fishing around for words that I can't find and people think it's incredibly pretentious but it's just because my brain's a bit slow.

Once I get into the swing of it, a couple of weeks I think it takes, then it's all perfectly natural again.

Your next choice for This Cultural Life is Michael Ondaatje, the author of the 1992 Booker Prize winning novel, The English Patient, which, of course, was adapted by Anthony Minghella.

And you were Oscar nominated for your role as Catherine Clifton opposite Ralph Fiennes.

Had you already read the book then when you were cast in The English Patient?

had I read the book.

I read it literally cover to cover, back to back.

And I heard that someone was making a film about it.

And I said to the person who told me, if you can get me a job on that film, I'll do anything.

Any of the parts?